Like Siblings We Stand
by StreakingHerculobus
Summary: The Purge eliminated 90 percent of all contractors and dolls. Now Hei, Amber, Havoc, and Yin struggle to survive in an increasingly hostile world, but where will they stand when contractors decided to fight back?


**_I don't own Darker than Black or the characters._**

_[Executive Order 9091: Contractors are enemies of the state and are required to undergo reeducation at government sponsored facilities. Dolls are property of the state, and persons/organizations requiring the use of one must go through the necessary channels.]  
_

Misaki waltzed through the dingy diner and on towards the rear. Saito and Kouno had the front wrapped up. They raided during rush hour in order to catch the owner off guard.

For the past two weeks the police suspected the place of being a front for a gang of drug runners, and today they received enough evidence to move in. Section 4 was put on the task because of the riskier neighborhood.

Customers were startled of course, when four or five uniforms stormed in, guns waving, but with badges displayed.

Slowly she made her way down a narrow corridor with her pistol at the ready. The lights were flickering on and off overhead. The walls peeled a sickly yellow color where they were once white. This really was one of the shoddier districts of Tokyo where the most crime abound.

A heavy metal door at the end. She closed her hand around the knob and listened. On the other side it sounded like a fight was going on.

She quickly wrenched the door open and paced inside. Her eyes widened at the sight of a large burly man, arm cocked, leaning over a smaller kid who cowered in the corner.

The bully reached for his gun, but Misaki warned him otherwise. It didn't have any effect on his primitive brain, so when he aimed at her, she was forced to fire.

A shot through the heart.

Whoops. She hadn't meant to kill him. A year ago she'd probably receive a demerit for the loss of a life which could have been avoided, but ever since the executive order, the authorities enjoyed a lot more lenience.

The kid, no, not a kid, wiped a drool of blood from his mouth. He looked like a young man, dark hair and thin, with a bruise on his left cheek. "Thanks," he said at last. He put his hand against the wall for leverage, as he stood up, no doubt dizzy from the pounding.

"Sure," Misaki replied. Then she noticed for the first time the audience, a young girl with silver hair in a purple and black gothic dress. "Who is she? Are you okay?" The girl seemed fine except for how calm she acted when her supposed friend was being pulverized. Skinny and pale, but unharmed. She didn't give any indication of the policewoman's presence, nor did she care to see to what Misaki guessed was her companion's injuries.

"That's Yin. She doesn't talk much." The boy straightened his back, and while most people would still be hurting, he acted as if nothing had happened.

He walked over and placed a hand around Yin's wrist. He pulled her to her feet and motioned for Misaki to lead the way.

"Unless," he began timidly, "you want to arrest me?"

She shook her head no. "Probably not. But we do need you down at the station to answer a few questions. I hazard to guess that you two knew about what was going on here?"

The boy pointed to his swollen face. "I think I know better than anyone," he joked. "Expect our full cooperation."

Misaki nodded. "I didn't catch your name."

"Li Shengshun. I moved to Tokyo from China about six months ago. I was a cook for this place, at least until they accused me of ratting them out. You saved me," he gestured behind him as they returned to the dining area," from my 'punishment'."

"I see," Misaki put her gun back in its holster. "Well, it's my job. So if you could just wait a few minutes while I clean up, I'll drive you to the station myself. The Kawasaki Group may be going down, depending on your testimony. Do you know of any other locations, offhand?"

Li shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I wasn't very trusted. Or useful. So I stayed in the kitchen." He smiled goodbye and chose a table near the entrance. The two looked like a pair of desperados, dirty and underfed. Not for the first time, Misaki pitied the those who had no other option but here. Criminals, the destitute, and of course, contractors were the only people who lived in these parts.

Saito demanded her attention, and she turned her back. A rather successful operation, she mused to herself. They arrested three men with definite ties to the mafia and acquired enough evidence to send them to prison for a long time.

Perhaps she won't even need Li's testimony. She was about to give him the news when she noticed the absent table. The mats were empty and her witnesses had escaped.

Not a surprise. No one on this side of the city trusted the police. Which is to be expected considering how most are engaged in illegal activity in the first place. But even the few innocents she encountered, like today, were wary of the authorities.

"I'm taking off," Misaki barked. Kouno yelled bye, as she strolled out the door. She hopped in her Porsche, out of place next to the junkier vehicles lining the street.

Li's face never left her mind, even when she pulled onto the busy freeway. At a closer look, he didn't look as innocent as she imagined. Though weak enough and unassuming, he had an overall detached quality to him, like he was just going through the motions. And his eyes, they possessed a rare resilience not seen in your everyday miscreant.

"Whatever," she shook her head. She was just focusing on the most interesting thing that happened. It was unavoidable when work had been so boring recently. The initial and second purges eliminated ninety-percent of all contractors and dolls, which so happened to be ninety-percent of her specialty. Therefore the department sent her team on a lot more routine missions than before.

_The building is quiet. It's night outside and the power is out. Holed up behind a steel beam Hei scanned the warehouse with his night vision scope. There was the occasional whisper and rustle, indicating the presence of hostiles. _

_The cross-hairs landed on the top of a person's skull peeking over a barrel about thirty meters out. With the squeeze of the trigger a body flopped to the floor. Hei continued searching and found a second target: the face of a man whose curiosity was going to cost him. _

_…_

_Another one down._

_Hei had to move; two shots gave your position away. Positioning himself about ten meters north behind a large crane, Hei watched his previous location be blasted to pieces. With substantial cover and many more angles, Hei picked off the rest in about sixty minutes, a total of eight people._

_The sun was beginning to come up, and Hei, never the type to waste resources, scrounged around, searching for any valuable hardware. None of the weapons were redeemable, but he did collect what was equivalent to eight thousand dollars from their wallets. _

_He came upon the last body, the daughter of the representative the men were trying smuggle across the border. At the time he did not know that she was only a teenager (it's hard to distinguish through a scope), but the knowledge did nothing to help the strange feeling which had erupted in his gut..._

The sheets were drenched in sweat, and his limbs wouldn't stop shaking. Breathing heavily, Hei climbed out of the covers and nearly fell over from exhaustion. Leaning on the coffee table, he waited until he was functional before fumbling to the kitchen. Retrieving a carton of milk he swigged all of it down, filling the emptiness in his stomach and to an extent his soul. Food helped in that regard, a distraction from the guilt he experienced after every kill.

Contractors thought they were hardcore. That because they possessed an ability which could kill people, they were suddenly black ops.

Not even close.

The truly lethal people in the world did not much care whether or not you could increase the load of gravity two thousand percent. No, they only cared about whether if they shot you from one thousand yards, would the bullet go through your brain?

That is why all the contractors who confront the Black Reaper die. They come at him he's one of them, like he's thinks the same way they do. It's a fatal mistake.

Hei toyed with the idea of once again taking up the rifle. His superiors expressly forbid it, arguing that it drew too much attention, especially from public law enforcement.

To be honest Hei was relieved that he wasn't required to carry a gun. It made killing all too easy, and the body count always multiplied.

Yet. At the same time Hei couldn't deny the adrenaline rush when the target flops to the ground, dead instantly from a well-placed shot. The feel of a trigger could be addicting. Which, thinking of his sister, is why he must avoid it at any cost.

"You look awful." Parcel sipped from her cereal at the breakfast bar. A young girl wearing a rain coat whose hood sported animal ears, she had been the traveling companion of Hei and Yin for the past two days.

They encountered her after he fled the scene at the diner. The woman-cop was being too personal, and Hei knew they needed to get away before they were trapped inside a police station of all places.

Parcel had been watching the commotion from across the street when he spied the distinctive synchrotron radiation of a contractor activating its ability. Calling her a fool he swept her up with a strong arm and sped off into the alley.

He should've just left her to be discovered, but now she was sitting in his apartment, too comfortable for a visitor in his opinion.

Hei ignored her and searched through the cabinets for the oatmeal. Finding a packet he put a bowl in the microwave and set it to sixty seconds.

"Do you dream?" Parcel heard him that night, groaning and tossing back and forth, in the grip of only what she could assume was a nightmare. "I thought contractors don't dream."

"Would you shut up for one moment?" Hei decided to eat the oatmeal standing up, not keen on joining the girl at the bar.

Slightly hurt, though it was what she had come to expect from BK-201, Parcel shrugged, "I like talking. It helps remind me I'm human."

Hei put the spoon down. "Even humans do terrible things."

_X_

Parcel had never witnessed such an brutal yet efficient assault. He literally cut them down in a single stroke, like harvesting wheat. They tried to defend themselves. The smarter ones ran, but a few were about to thank their inflated egos for a torturous death.

One man decided to come after her, but he was quickly transported elsewhere. She had a favorite place, a nearby trash compacter.

The way they killed sounds cruel and unnecessary. But they were contractors. And they merited all the names the public threw at them.

X

"Amber, what are you doing here?" Hei quickly spit the cigarette onto the floor and stomped on it. But it was too late.

The female contractor ducked through the window. It was morning and the light shone around her teal green hair. "I saw that, Hei. What do we keep going over?" She sat down beside him on the mangy bed, causing a tired squeak. "I don't care if it's bad for you-I mean I do care-but I know what smoking signifies. You're giving up."

A long pause. Hei inspected the palm of his hand, noting all the grooves and coarse lines, cursing them for how many lives they have taken.

Then in a rare moment of openness, he informed her, "I killed ten men last night." He meant to say it with a hint of sadness, but to his disdain, it came out more like a trite remark about the weather.

"I know," she whispered, rubbing his thigh. She leaned back as well and turned on her side, placing an arm across his chest. "I know."

She would've liked to stay that way forever, but Hei, as usual, broke contact. He rolled off the side and onto his feet, stretching his limbs. "What have you heard from the Phantom?"

Down to business, she lamented. "I managed to convince him to wait one more month. Though I had to make up a lot of stories about our nonexistent successes." She rolled her eyes. "From his tone, it sounds like either we completely turn around the situation or he goes to war...with or without us."

"We can't let that happen." He propped his elbow against windowsill.

"To be honest," Amber traced a circle on his mattress with her finger, "It's going to take a miracle." She raised her head and thought back to what she did know about the future, which after the purge occurred, amounted to virtually nothing. "I don't even know what to do this time."


End file.
